Here’s how the press back home covered the Bambatha Rebellion. From the Spectator:
The Native Peril in South Africa
We do not think that too much importance should be attached to the present
native trouble in Natal. So far as the facts appear, the disturbances would
seem to be isolated and inconsiderable. A Poll-tax has been recently
introduced into that Colony to supplement the Hut-tax, and is levied upon the
young bloods of a tribe who have no kraals of their own. About fourteen miles
from Pietermaritzburg there is a small settlement of Christianised Kaffirs
belonging to the Mvelis tribe, who announced their intention of resisting the
new levy. Accordingly, when on
a detachment of the Natal Police was sent to collect it, some forty natives
ambushed the party, and in the fight which followed an inspector and a
trooper were killed and another inspector wounded. The rest made their
escape, martial law was proclaimed, and the following day a strong force of
Natal Carabineers went out to find the murderers, who had fled to the
difficult bush country around the source of the Umkomaas River. Imperial
troops were offered from the Transvaal to supplement the resources of the
local authorities. The other native tribes have remained quiet, and the
Mvelis chief has volunteered to assist in the capture of the offenders, who
are said not to exceed fifty in number. So far the trouble seems nothing more
than a violent breach of the peace by a few unruly natives. The only sinister
facts in the case are that the Mvelis are Christianised, and apparently under
the influence of the Ethiopian movement. Hitherto it has been believed that
Natal was almost exempt from that ill-omened propaganda, but if rumour speaks
true, it shows that it has wider ramifications than was supposed, and is
capable of stirring its votaries to active rebellion.
The article goes on to do some crystal ball reading and speculation and unashamed open plotting for how best to keep black Africans under the thumb of their foreign white “Paramount.” There are no further details about the tax rebellion, however. The second paragraph closes with this remarkable sentence: “If there should arise a leader among this vast people, or if some common grievance against their white masters should coerce them into unity, it is hard to see what could save South African civilisation except a long and terrible war and the extermination of the malcontents.” Civilization has never sounded so worth saving!
